The operation of recent computer application programs, electronic products, and audio/visual (AV) appliances is increasingly complicated together with the implementation of various functions thereof. This makes operation support important for users who do not know how to operate them. For users who do not know how to achieve a target function, a manual may be provided so that they can find out how to operate the target function by themselves. However, finding the target function using the manual is burdensome and time-consuming for the users. To address this circumstance, there is a technique in which a system infers the user's target function when a user makes a support request, using records of the user's operations performed through a trial-and-error process before the support request has been made. Providing operation support based on the result of the inference enables provision of operation support which is less burdensome for users.
As described, a technique is proposed for supporting the user based on the user's operation records. For example, there is a help display apparatus which searches for a function highly related to key input operations that the user has performed through a trial-and-error process, and presents operating instructions regarding that function (see Patent Literature 1, for example). Further, when the inference target is a website, there is a technique for inferring the user's target web page based on a degree of match between words on each web page and words included in a link which the user has selected when moving from a web page to another (see Non Patent Literature 1, for example).